Cleaning of laundry and dirty clothing is a routine and regular activity and particularly for families of children. There are various cleaning processes including commercial laundry services, dry cleaning using special solutions and solvents, and at-home washing using conventional washing machines.
Often at-home washing of laundry involves the use of heated water and detergents, bleaches, special cleaning solutions, and other soil removing agents. The detergents and other soil removers typically have a significant amount of phosphates. While the use of these products results in cleaned and disinfected clothing, the products also have unsatisfactory problems. Particularly, phosphates are a significant water pollutant. The chlorine from bleaches also causes water pollution. Further, using heated water requires energy to heat the water, and heated water may cause fabrics to shrink. The detergents and heated water also damage the fabrics. Some persons also have allergic reactions to most detergents and must use a non-allergenic cleaning product. Bacteria may survive washing notwithstanding the use of detergents. Although washing machines have rinse cycles, not all of the detergent is removed. Residual detergent dulls fabric colors. Residual detergent also leaves a sticky surface on clothing that further attracts dust, grime, and contaminants. Fabrics lack volume and supplements may be used to provide a softer feel to the fabrics.
To address these problems, detergents have been developed that clean satisfactorily in cold water, and use supplemental oxidizers to assist with the detergent cleaning. However, for the reasons noted above, these developments have not met with universal acceptance.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved apparatus for treating wash water supplied to washing machines for cleaning laundry and methods. It is to such that the present invention is directed.